Valtteri Bottas says he doesn’t need to prove to the newly Audi-owned Sauber that he is still fast and motivated enough to deserve a 2025 cockpit.
With current Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg already signed up at Sauber for next year and beyond, it is clear that if Carlos Sainz also accepts a reported offer, former Mercedes race winner Bottas will be without a seat.
"That’s what motorsport is like," the Japanese source as-web.jp quotes the 34-year-old as saying. "Sometimes it’s difficult to show what you’re capable of."
Indeed, while the prospects for the works Audi future look good, Sauber is currently struggling for performance - and even yet to solve a technical problem that has badly marred the team’s pitstops so far in 2024.
Bottas has had a low-profile in the ’silly season’ recently, but he’s now being linked with potential moves to Haas or Alpine.
"I think people who look into the details and try to see the performance of each driver understand what they’re seeing," he said. "But it’s also true that when you’re not scoring points, you’re almost hidden in a way.
"I feel like I’ve had some good qualifying sessions and races so far, but they’ve always been compromised. Something always happened, whether it was a pitstop or not. All I can do is give the best performance I can," added Bottas.
Bottas is clearly happier than ever away from the F1 tracks, and he has even qualified for this year’s UCI Gravel World Championships thanks to his passion for cycling.
As for F1, he insisted: "All I can do is show my ability, but I’ve been feeling good lately, so I hope the right people are watching.
"They certainly know what I’m doing," Bottas added when asked about whether Audi and Sauber also recognise his contribution. "Recently I did two days of non-stop testing in Japan, covered five race distances, flew out at night and went straight into the simulator the correlation work.
"So yes, they know."
As for what will happen next in the ’silly season’, Bottas concluded: "I think it will sort itself out in the next few weeks.
"We are working on it and for sure negotiations have started, so it should be an interesting few weeks ahead. All the options are 100 percent F1."